Experience Sicily

Tag: lava

  • Mount Etna’s First Flora

    When you walk on Etna’s craters you can imagine how rich the mineral-filled lavic soil will one day become. It takes 100 to 700 years for lava soil to support new vegetation growth. One of the first natural plants to return (and pictured here) is Sicilian astragalus. Others include camomile flowers, Etna rennet, and tansy…

  • The Surface Of Etna Is Rich With Minerals

    Fred on one of the Silvestri Craters of Mount Etna… The Silvestri Craters are extinct. Etna’s active calderas that are much further up the 11,000 foot summit continue to spew lava, ash, and gas throughout the year. Etna, on Sicily’s east coast, is Europe’s largest and most active volcano and one of the most active…

  • Shedding Light on Etna

    Across all generations of the family we are hosting in Sicily, Etna was a hit! We spent much of today learning about the volcano which included exploration of a lava cave from the 1792 eruption, pictured here. (We learned, among other things, that there are 197 known lava caves in the Etna territory.)  Our always…

  • Spewing For A Millennia 

    Etna has been spewing lava and ash for millennia. Last week, I was so excited to see it do so in person. Thankfully, the ongoing eruption is somewhat staid and very different than the historic events following March 8, 1669, when the citizens of Catania thought they could challenge Etna. Unfortunately, they were wrong.  Over…

  • Lava Casa

    In towns and cities in the shadow of Etna, Sicily’s volcano, black stones cut from hardened lava are used for construction, as illustrated by this cottage on Etna’s slope.

  • A Convenient Souvenir

    When I (conveniently) forgot to wear earrings one day in June while in Ortigia, I saw these in a jewelry store window. I walked in and asked to see them. The salesman began his pitch to sell them to me, which I thought was hilarious because I knew exactly what they were… “Hand painted ceramic…

  • A Crater, the Wind, and I

    This week we’ve traversed Sicily, and we’ll do it again tomorrow! These last few days, we’ve gone from beautiful rock stacks at Lo Scopello to today’s below-freezing winds and falling snow at the top of the volcano Etna! At one point on the trek, the wind was so strong, I thought I was going to…

  • Walk the Rim

    Volcanic crater, Mount Etna. (Photo Credit: Experience Sicily’s Filippo Buttitta)

  • Warm Earth

    Sicily boasts Europe’s largest and most active volcano, Mount Etna. When you visit the island of the sun, you can take a guided excursion to visit the craters, feel the warm earth with your hand, and taste the wine made from grapes that have grown in the rich soil left by in the volcano’s lava.…